1861.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
13 
little fowl fancier-ing to become very interesting. 
It is really amusing to watch their endless ma¬ 
neuvers, and study their various characters. 
Now a “green” person surveying a regiment 
of dame partlets and consequential gallants, 
would perceive no difference, save in shape and 
tints. As well go into a human gatlieriug and 
conclude all there were mentally alike, simply 
because formed after the universal model. T 
do not believe there are many leading instincts 
in the human mind, which do not find their coun¬ 
terparts in these bipeds. In our own collection 
we have fowls of every shade of character—the 
weak minded hen, the well balanced biddy, and 
the regular virago. Hens there are whom one 
positively respects for all those qualities which 
demand the same sentiment in humanity. Otli- 
srs we equally despise—“ shiftless ” liens,, hens 
who haven't the moral courage to sit the allotted 
three weeks, or if otherwise, to bring up a fami¬ 
ly with any success. A hen we respect, is gen¬ 
erally designated “ old biddy,” while nothing is 
too contemptuous for the others; Among these 
latter wejiave one inveterate old cackler in half 
mourning, long known as “ Widow Bedott,” 
while a stately pullet who has reared number¬ 
less broods in entire respectability, answers to 
the call of “ Mrs. Hannah Moore.” Louise. 
Butter too good for Market. 
Epicures sometimes display a rather suprising 
taste in their choice of cheese, preferring that 
which is spoiled for most palates, but it is some¬ 
thing new to find that butter may be made too 
good to suit customers. On this side of the wa¬ 
ter, the dealers complain that enough of a prime 
article can with difficulty be found, and “cute ” 
as Yankees are supposed to be, they have yet a 
lesson to learn in adulterating butter to fit it for 
a ready sale. 
A dealer in England carried a lot of prime 
Welsh butter, noted for its superior excellence, 
to London market, and was told it would not 
suit. “ And why not ?” inquired he. “ It is too 
good,” replied the city merchant. “ The Lon¬ 
doners or Cockneys have a peculiar taste for 
butter; they don’t like a wholesome, honest 
article, but something that will cut like clay,— 
something that will spread stiffly over the bread, 
without permeating it, and therefore butter is 
prepared in a peculiar manner for London 
market. They mix it with oleaginous and 
farinaceous substances, and make it thick and 
hard.” 
We have sampled lots of butter that tasted 
as though prepared by some particular process 
by which indescribable flavors had been added, 
but the above described article has probably 
not yet reached this market. When it does 
come, may we not be there to taste. 
Extraordinary Yield of Wheat. —The 
American Farmer states that Col. N. Goldsbor- 
ough, of Talbot Co., Md., had 27$ acres of 
wheat the past season, which yielded a trifle less 
than 55 bushels of 60 lbs. each, to the acre. 
Nine acres yielded 64J bushels per acre. The 
field was dressed with unrotted farm-yard ma¬ 
nure, marsh mud, woods mold, marl, and shell 
linje. The wheat was drilled in October 4th to 
7th, one inch below the surface, at the rate of 
two bushels on one acre, and one bushel and sixty 
me hundredths upon the remainder. The va- 
jiety was the smooth headed, white wheat, 
Drought from North Carolina a few years ago. 
Familiar and Useful Notes about 
Common Birds.II. 
THE COMMON SNOW EIRD. 
Very closely allied to the sparrow, in size, 
form, and many of its habits, is the Snow' Bird, 
the Niphcea hyemalis of ornithologists. It is so 
nearly related that it may as well be called one 
of the family. It is common to all the United 
States, east of the Rocky Mountains, but appears 
only at stated seasons, in the southern portions, 
while it is a constant resident of New-England 
and the northern Alleglianies. It is so familiar 
in its approaches to our houses, frequently 
alighting within a few feet of the child that gives 
it food, and is so well known, that a particular 
description seems to be unnecessary. 
Like the goldfinch, described in last month’s 
American Agr iculturist , upon the approach of Win¬ 
ter they collect in flocks, and subsist upon sub¬ 
stantially the same description of food. We do 
not quite agree with the usually reliable Audu¬ 
bon, that they will not suffer any other bird to 
keep them company, for we have often seen 
flocks in Winter accompanied by one or more 
snow lark-buntings, living together upon terms 
of the greatest apparent friendship. In the pur¬ 
suit of food it is very industrious, and more ac¬ 
customed to frequent our farm yards, than any 
other Winter bird. It avails itself of the labors 
of the domestic fowl, which it may often be seen 
following up, feeding upon the seeds which the 
fowl has scratched to,the surface, and passed by 
as too small for its use. It is also said to follow 
the wild turkey, the squirrel, and the grouse, in 
their wanderings, for the same purpose. What 
we have said of the goldfinch, applies with equal 
force to the snow bird. Its entire subsistence in 
Winter is derived from the seeds of grasses or 
noxious weeds, which the farmer has forgotten, 
or has not found time to eradicate and destroy. 
A singular effect is noticeable in the flight of 
the snow bird. Its outer tail feathers are white, 
and contrast strongly with the general dark as¬ 
pect of the body. When they are spread in the 
rapid movement of flight, the bird appears to be 
nearly white. It possesses the singular peculi¬ 
arity also, noted in the goldfinch, of uttering its 
note continuously, when on the wing. 
It is probably true, that there have been vag¬ 
abonds, who have actually slaughtered this lit¬ 
tle glory of the animal creation, for food; other¬ 
wise, the statement that they are delicious eating, 
could not have foimd its way into the books. 
We trust for the honor of the race, that in these 
days of refined humanity, no such savages exist. 
They should go out of fashion, with heathen and 
cannibals. 
■ It was only during the last Summer that we 
became acquainted with the breeding places of 
this bird. Aware that in one locality it was 
migratory, and that its breeding places were not 
far distant, probably, we had been for some 
years on the lookout for its nests. In the early 
part of last June, during a trip to Mount Mans- 
field, the highest peak of the Green Mountain 
range, we noticed many of these birds around 
the base of the mountain. Their numbers in¬ 
creased as we ascended, until on arriving at the 
top, we found them more numerous than any 
other species. There was scarcely a moment 
when several were not in view. They appeared 
to fraternize very amicably with the black cap 
warblers, which were also noticed in unusually 
large numbers. Our time on this occasion did 
not permit us to search for nests, but in the 
course of a visit to the same place a month later, 
the nests were found in abundance. The young 
birds were then nearly fledged. The nests were 
not unlike that of the Song Sparrow, formed of 
small sticks and lined with mosses and fine 
grasses. They were placed upon, or veiy near 
the ground, beneath the limbs of the black 
spruce, fir, and Frazer pine, near the top of the 
mountain at an elevation where these trees were 
much dwarfed. [Here, it may be said in passing, 
that Mount Mansfield is the proper locale of the 
Frazer pine. We found the cones in various 
stages of growth, and there is no more doubt 
about the recurved character of the bract (the 
characteristic of the species) than there is of the 
recurvature of the bill of the American avocets. 
Whoso doubtetli the existence of this tree, or 
that it is found on Mount Mansfield, we will 
straightway put down by a host of witnesses, 
among them the veritable Tim Bunker, himself, 
who was our compagnon du voyage upon the first 
trip to which we have adverted, and who aided 
in planting some of them in our unpretending 
grounds, where they now flourish as witnesses 
for the truth, and mementoes of a glorious day 
upon that grand old mountain.] 
But few additional particulars relating to the 
snow bird need be stated. The general color of 
its egg is a yellowish white, thickly covered with 
small dots of reddish brown, most numerous on 
the broadest parts, where, in some places they 
are confluent. It breeds in mountain districts 
generally, and the young come to maturity ear¬ 
lier the further south they are produced. It is 
a summer resident only, of the fur countries, and 
is found as far south as Texas, only in Winter. 
It is not found upon or west of the Rocky Moun¬ 
tains, where its place is supplied by a closely 
allied species of the Niphcea , called the Rocky 
mountain snowbird. We are not aware of any 
successful efforts that have been made to do¬ 
mesticate it, or induce it to breed in confine¬ 
ment. L. E. Chittenden. 
---—>i » -* - 
Honey from Pine and Oak Trees. 
Mr. W. Shaw, Madison Co., O., writes to the 
American Agriculturist that in 1858 he found that 
late swarms of bees, such as are usually worth¬ 
less, had filled their hives with a superior arti¬ 
cle of honey. Upon searching for the source 
whence they gathered it, he found the pine trees 
in the neighborhood literally covered with bees 
sipping a sweet substance like dew, which ap¬ 
peared to exude from the bark. He also noticed 
the present year, after the white clover had failed, 
and when buckwheat was in blossom, the bees 
left the buckwheat, and were found busily work¬ 
ing upon the scrub-oaks, gathering an exuda¬ 
tion that appeared upon a little ball at the base 
of the leaves. In both these instances the sweet 
liquid which attracted the bees, ivas the product 
of an insect, the Aphis, or plant louse, different 
